Kirk Watson: “this will be the first of a special order pinpointing and focusing on the need for universal health care insurance.…”

“this will be the first of a special order pinpointing and focusing on the need for universal health care insurance. There will be speakers today that will point up various areas of need. But in opening this hour, I would like to say that over the past 15 years there has been incremental reforms that have expanded health care coverage to limited populations and have crowded out an increasing number of Americans from the private insurance market. Preventable and mismanaged chronic disease, such as asthma, cancer, diabetes and heart disease, are the leading causes of death and disability in the United States and account for the vast majority of health care spending. They have affected the quality of life for 133 million Americans and are responsible for 7 out of every 10 deaths in the United States, killing more than 1.7 million Americans every year. Chronic diseases are also the primary driver of health care costs, accounting for more than 75 cents of every dollar we spend on health care in this country. As reported by the Centers for Disease Control, in 2005, this amounted to $1.5 trillion of the trillions spent on health. Despite worldwide problems, the issue of chronic disease does not register with large segments of the public. As policymakers, we must raise the awareness of the health care crisis on this issue of the uninsured and underinsured as a primary concern in Congress.”